April Is National Poetry Month - Elementary "Poetry and Science" Lessons

Happy "April Is National Poetry Month" Month!

The third graders and I have started in on our "Poetry and Science Unit" and they're doing fantastic. We're having a good time. They shared some really amazing work today and I'm proud to be one of their teachers, and grateful that the full time teacher is allowing me time to do the primary teaching for this unit. Dare I say, it makes me miss the full time grind and I have been wavering on this library path as of late. (Shh, don't tell anyone I might be changing my mind back to my original "life plans"!)

I'll be posting the updated Poetry and Science power point presentation, which I edited from last year's version, and any other new materials I will have by the time we're done writing our class book, once the unit is over.

To start things off, we read Frederick by Leo Lionni and Emily by Michael Bedard, two picture books which are good kickstarters for poetry with elementary school age students. I also showed them "artifacts of a poet's life" by bringing in a sample of my own physical commonplace books, a few broadsides and chapbooks, and the various poetry and non-poetry books I have that help inspire and inform me. That was fun.

They are now working on filling their commonplace books, as I do with this online one and my physical ones. Some just go to town and fill their books without hesitation. Others are a little gunshy because they're not used to having a notebook that they're responsible for filling with their own ideas, interests, whims, thoughts, pictures, words, etc.

"Can I write a poem in my commonplace book?" they ask. "Of course! You can fill it with whatever you think will help you be inspired to write, including the poems themselves." I brought in stickers for them to decorate the cover with. That was the biggest hit, admittedly, by far.

Much much more to post, including handouts and notes on individual lessons, so stay tuned. In the meantime Happy "April is National Poetry Month (Except Every Month Should Be Poetry Month)" Month!